Cascade Falls, Death Falls, Adirondacks Trip

Aloha all and welcome! I recently returned from a multi-day trip through the Adirondacks that I’d like to share with you today. As many of you know, I am in the process of leaving for Hawaii where I have an internship with the Student Conservation Association and National Park Service that starts on June 5th. I am trying to get in as many things that I normally do during the summer this last month of May. So far, it’s been a great/eventful month full of backcountry buzz and travelling. Friday the 20th I had made plans with friends Matt and Caitlin to meet up in Speculator/Lake Pleasant - Hamilton County, where they live, for dinner and in preparation for a weekend of fun. I left earlier however in the hopes of taking the long way through the Adirondacks and stopping to do a bit of hiking myself along the way. It was a beautiful morning and I wanted to get moving so I threw all my camping and hiking gear in the back of the truck… strapped down the kayak in the bed… and hit the back roads travelling through Florence, Osceola, into Booneville, and then over to Old Forge. Old Forge is a very popular tourist town with lots to do around the area but my hike was a bit northeast of there in the township of Inlet. I have written of the Hamilton County Waterfall Challenge in previous posts and the pdf explaining the challenge can be found here: (Waterfall Challenge). Basically it is a challenge set up by Hamilton County to generate some tourism and cash flow throughout these remote areas. It was also their hope to share with people the beautiful hikes and environment in which these waterfalls are found. I think it’s an excellent idea and have had a lot of great times exploring and looking for them around this section of Adirondacks. The one I was after Friday morning was Cascade Falls. One thing I love about that pdf is that they publish Latitude and Longitude Coordinates for the trailhead parking areas. As a side note / tip for all you travellers out there. Most car gps systems have a “Travel To” option where you can simply enter in Lat. and Long. numbers (instead of an address or town) and the GPS will plan a route from your current location to those numbers. I have discovered that this function is very useful with today’s technology and online mapping services provided to the public. Like most people, I like to know where I’m going before leaving and don’t rely too heavily on the GPS (if I can help it) because they are notorious for taking the back dirt roads as a shortcut or other various problems. I go onto Google Maps or Google Earth to see approximately the route I will travel and to see where a trailhead along some highway might be. Once I find it, I simply right click on the mouse, and select from the option menu “What’s Here?” As a result: Google maps will give you Lat./Long. coordinates that you can then enter into your GPS. Obviously this may not be the greatest option when you are travelling to a known address but for backcountry exploring it’s nice to know I can get right down to within 10 or 20 feet of where I want to be parking or where a trailhead is. Google maps online also has a feature where in some cases they have driven the major highways and taken 360 degree digital pictures of the road and surroundings. I have used this tool at work when I was land surveying and also to find trailheads that I wasn’t sure about… just a couple tips I have picked up that hopefully you can utilize for your next trip so you don’t have as many headaches and your journeys are well planned out and fun.

Well, to get back to my trip… I arrived at the trailhead parking area as described in the pdf description with no problems at all and set out to discover the cascading nature of the falls that the name hinted at. After about 4 miles up a wide, well maintained, but remote trail I finally heard the falls ahead and off the trail. When I stopped to take in the beautiful shady pool and the falls however, the black flies instantly started attacking so I was forced to cut my visit short and continue back. Now is the time of year that the little black flies are a true pain and I have the marks to prove it. The falls was very enjoyable and I had a short snack and water break where I snapped a few pictures.

I ran into another hiker while there who I was following the tracks of on my way in… and to my surprise he was “Geocaching”. I have played at this game/activity in the past while in college and always had a good time. If you haven’t run across this term before, it is a new-ish activity for GPS users and outdoor enthusiasts where a group or individual places some sort of hidden treasure and logbook somewhere and records its location with gps coordinates. Those people then publish the information for others to use and go find. It’s a fun time and hunting for or finding hidden secrets gives you a rewarding feeling while you’re outside getting exercise and enjoying the local environment. Moving on… I traveled further northeast to Raquette Lake where a simple half mile trail awaited. The trail ended at Death Falls where I repeated my previous actions of viewing the falls, swatting at flies, taking pictures, swatting more flies and fleeing back to the truck to escape.

With my day’s goals accomplished, I then traveled to my friends’ cabin in the woods to complete a very enjoyable day with delicious tacos, a couple beers and good company! Well, I have gotten the first day (Friday) written up… I think this may turn into a multi-part blog post. Stay alert for further backcountry buzzing. I hope you enjoyed and got some ideas for your next trip. Please share any of those ideas in my comments below! Aloha.